Turnabout Theatre 1-3 ~ Curtain Call

Turnabout Theatre - Part 3
~Curtain Call~
Date added	December 12, 2020
Duration	2:08:15
Transcript	Available
Part of	My Little Ace Attorney: Elements of Justice
⇐ Turnabout Theatre - Part 2	⇒ Crusading for a Turnabout - Part 1

Court is called back into session, and Prince Blueblood confirms what the defense claimed before the recess: the glowing hoofprints at the scene of the crime do not match Coco Pommel or Overall Concept. Instead, they are a perfect match to one of the contestants in the fashion competition: Suri Polomare - just as Twilight predicted.

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Suri is brought to the witness stand, visibly irritated about being pulled away from her work. In regards to her hoofprints at the crime scene, she testifies that she was at the theater to meet with Coco and that her hoofprints were simply the result of a casual backstage stroll before the murder ever took place. However, during cross-examination, Phoenix points out that Coco never mentioned meeting with Suri, and when asked what they met about, Suri's answers are vague. When pressed, Suri adds that she arrived to the theater after the play started and entered from the main entrance. Phoenix says she could not have done this because the play was sold out. Furthermore, the police interrogated everyone in the audience, yet Suri was not among those interrogated.

Having been caught in several lies already, Suri openly mocks Blueblood's prosecuting skill and abuse of his royal status, remarking "how far Equestrian royalty has fallen". This remark appears to affect Twilight deeply. Suri admits that she was not at the theater as an audience member and, without any respect remaining for Blueblood or his position, agrees to testify about her relationship with Overall Concept.

Suri explains that because the play was sold out, she entered the theater from the back door and was only there to visit Coco; she had never met Overall prior to the night he was killed. During Phoenix's cross-examination, Suri claims to have been invited to come to the theater by a letter Coco sent her, but she refuses to divulge exactly what was in the letter. Regardless, Phoenix is unable to find a direct connection between Suri and Overall. After being caught in a moment of distraction, Twilight suggests Suri's motive for murder is related to someone else.

When Suri asserts there was only one victim on the night of the murder, Phoenix objects; Overall Concept may have been the only murder victim, but Coco Pommel was also a victim of physical assault. Given Suri's relationship with Coco and established history of cheating, Phoenix proposes she would have sufficient motive to get revenge on her former assistant, including framing her for murder. Suri loses all sense of patience and dismisses the current trial as a farce, hurling insults at everyone around her. Phoenix is unfazed, however, and tells Suri to testify about what she did on the night of the murder - truthfully.

Suri claims to have met with Coco after being invited by letter, but shortly after their meeting, Overall started chasing her for no reason. He followed her up the catwalk with the fabric roll before tripping and dropping it. Coco came from behind, knocked Overall out with the fabric roll, and proceeded to hang him with the rope, after which she instructed Suri to take the fabric and leave. Suri says she kept quiet about this because she did not want to be Coco's next victim.

During cross-examination, Suri states she arrived at the theater around 8:45pm (lining up with Overall's time of death) and that while Overall chased her, there was a loud clang as he tripped (which Coco and Playwright also stated to have heard). However, Phoenix objects to Suri's claim that Coco knocked Overall out with the fabric roll, which contains several inconsistencies:

1. If Coco held the fabric roll while the fluorescent paint was still wet, why was no paint found on her hooves?
2. If Coco struck Overall with the fabric roll, why was there no paint on his head?

In the face of such facts, Suri finally admits she was at the theater to steal Overall's special fabric. Unfortunately, the reasoning that Coco could not have struck Overall with the fabric roll without leaving paint on him applies to Suri as well, and Suri assures she did not bring anything to the theater to attack Overall with other than what she is currently wearing. To that end, Phoenix suggests Suri used the catwalk itself as a weapon, strangling Overall with her blue scarf and throwing him against the metal railing hard enough to render him unconscious. Plus, any marks on Overall's neck left by the scarf would be assumed to have been left by the rope that hanged him.

The judge cannot deny this possibility, and with no rebuttal from Blueblood, he is about to suspend trial proceedings when Suri objects to Phoenix's theory. If her hooves left hoofprints and she used her scarf to strangle Overall, there should be paint residue on it, and she volunteers her scarf for residue testing, knowing no paint will be found. Phoenix points out the obvious: the scarf would not have any paint on it because it would have been washed off in the rain. Enraged, Suri points out that all of Phoenix's evidence is circumstantial; none of it directly incriminates her.

Phoenix presents the fabric roll once again, explaining that when Coco regained consciousness after being knocked out, she found the fabric roll in her hooves, placed there by someone attempting to frame her for murder. Using the forensic flashlight, Phoenix reveals hoofprints all over the fabric roll, and they are a match to Suri's. Phoenix concludes that Suri not only framed Coco but also murdered Overall Concept herself. Finally driven into a corner, Suri breaks down on the witness stand with a scream of rage.

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At this time, it becomes clear that Suri was intending to steal a roll of Overall Concept's special fabric to use in the fashion competition. When she got caught, she knocked out Overall and Coco Pommel, and then murdered Overall and framed Coco for the act in order to get revenge on her. However, Suri desperately insists she did not murder anyone and pleads for someone to help her. Just before the judge declares Coco not guilty, Coco herself interrupts, stating her memory has fully returned and that Suri could not have knocked out Overall.

As everyone is shocked by this revelation, Suri angrily tells Coco to stay out of it. However, Coco refuses to stand by and let Suri be convicted of a crime she did not commit, stating that not even she deserves such punishment. Phoenix tries to get Coco to reconsider, but Coco is determined to save Suri and asks Phoenix to trust her as much as she trusts him. Realizing Coco's firm convictions, Phoenix allows her to testify.

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Coco testifies that after washing her hooves of paint and glitter, she witnessed Overall run up the catwalk and followed him. On her way to the top of the stairs, she heard the loud clang. At the top of the catwalk, she saw Suri looking over the side of the catwalk, with Overall nowhere to be seen. Before Coco could ask where Overall was, Suri knocked her out with the fabric roll. When she woke up, she discovered Overall's hanged body, Playwright found her, and she was shortly arrested.

When Phoenix presses her during cross-examination, Coco says she found only Suri at the top of the catwalk; Overall Concept had somehow disappeared. Considering the expression on Suri's face and the audience's panic, Overall had already been hanged before Coco was knocked out. Blueblood seems to briefly go crazy with giddiness when Phoenix's own client appears to have disproven his theory and shifted blame for the murder onto herself, and he expects Phoenix to have Coco's testimony stricken from the record. Doing so would easily get Coco a "not guilty" verdict, but Phoenix refuses to betray Coco's trust in him, and he accepts her testimony as absolute truth.

While Phoenix does believe Suri stole the fabric and framed Coco for killing Overall Concept, he does not believe she committed the murder itself. To prove this, he presents the noose used to hang Overall; there is glitter on it, but no paint, meaning Suri could not have touched it with her paint-covered hooves. With Suri ruled out as the killer, that leaves Coco as the only other suspect. Phoenix is silent while Twilight exhausts all possible arguments, and Blueblood believes he has won the trial.

However, this is revealed to be part of Phoenix's plan to get Suri to testify on Coco's behalf. He explains to Suri that Coco just risked everything to clear her name, and now it is Suri's turn to do the same for Coco. Coco appeals to Suri to do the right thing, and Suri eventually caves in. She confesses to stealing Overall's fabric and attacking Coco. Fully aware of what this will mean for herself, Suri agrees to testify one last time, claiming she does not want to owe Coco or Phoenix any favors.

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In her confession, Suri explains that she indeed went to the theater with intent to steal Overall's fabric, though she does not say how she came to know about the fabric's existence in the first place. When Coco left the dressing room to wash her hooves, she snuck into the dressing room while Overall's attention was focused elsewhere and rolled up the fabric, but Overall eventually caught her, resulting in the chase up the catwalk.

When Suri reached the far end of the catwalk, she heard the clang behind her, turned around, and noticed Overall had disappeared. When she heard screams from the audience, she looked over the side of the catwalk and saw Overall's hanging body. By then, Coco had arrived looking for Overall, and in her state of extreme panic, Suri knocked her out with the fabric roll. With Coco unconscious, Suri saw an opportunity to get revenge on her and framed her for Overall's death, unintentionally tearing off a piece of the fabric while removing it from the roll, before making her getaway.

With that, the full picture of the events surrounding the murder becomes clear. However, it is still unclear who killed Overall Concept if neither Coco Pommel nor Suri Polomare did. Phoenix declares the only remaining possibility is that Overall Concept killed himself, despite nothing in the evidence or testimony given that supports it and suicide being completely unheard of in Equestria.

Phoenix's theory is that after chasing Suri up the catwalk, Overall hanged himself with the rope. When Blueblood mentions Overall was unconscious at the time of his death due to a bruise on the back of his head, Phoenix believes he may have simply hit his head on the catwalk railing while falling to his death, thus explaining the clang that Coco, Suri, and Playwright all heard. To further prove his theory, Phoenix presents the autopsy report, which states Overall's hooves were covered in glitter, which is how glitter got on the noose.

When asked why Overall Concept would commit suicide when he was planning to propose to Coco, Phoenix does not have an answer but says that can be figured out later. The judge agrees, requesting that the police investigate this matter further. As to the matter at hand, however, Suri is placed under arrest for perjury, theft, and crime scene tampering. And for the crime of murder, Coco Pommel is found... Not Guilty!

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In the courtroom lobby, Phoenix and Twilight's friends congratulate them for winning the trial. Coco soon joins them, and while she is happy about the verdict, she is devastated to learn the true circumstances of Overall Concept's death. As she wonders if she somehow drove him to suicide, Athena - using her experience in analytical psychology - assures her that Overall's death was not her fault. Earlier in the trial, it was mentioned that Overall suffered from depression after his parents died; Athena posits that Overall had been carrying that weight for years, even if he seemed perfectly happy on the outside.

Phoenix adds that Overall was clearly at his happiest when he was Coco, so much that he was planning to propose to her. Whatever his reasons were for taking his own life, Coco was not to blame. Coco still feels like she could have done more to help him; Apollo sympathizes with her plight but says the situation was out of her control, and all she can do now is carry on his legacy and spirit using what she learned from his teachings. With the assets she inherited from Overall Concept, Coco decides to make his final pieces of work a masterpiece.

Playwright then enters and apologizes to Coco for accusing her of murdering Overall. He also expresses his utmost faith and confidence in Coco that she will be able to succeed on her own in the fashion industry. Considering how his perfectionism affected his employees, he feels somewhat responsible for Overall's suicide and vows to change his perfectionist ways. Playwright reveals that Overall approached him during the play's intermission about letting Coco design costumes for the next performance. In honor of Overall's final wishes, Playwright promotes Coco to head costume designer for Bridleway Theater. Coco happily accepts this honor and promises to do her best.

With that, Playwright and Coco leave to return to the theater, with Rarity delighted to see how Playwright has changed for the better. The rest of the group is left still wondering why Overall Concept killed himself, hoping that the police can solve that remaining mystery. Phoenix himself is also curious as to why Twilight summoned him to Equestria considering she was more than capable of representing Coco herself, has been studying law for some time, and would have felt compelled to help a friend of Rarity's as the Princess of Friendship. When Twilight struggles to come up with an answer, Phoenix sees a dense tangle of chains and five Psyche-Locks appear around her, indicating she is hiding something.

Before Phoenix can press Twilight further, Pinkie Pie arrives, having slept through yet another trial yet still finding time to put together an after-trial party and travel from Ponyville to Manehattan. As the friends head to the party together, Phoenix notes in the closing narration that unbeknownst to them, something dark and mysterious was lurking in the shadows of Equestria and would continue to unfold before them, eventually bringing Phoenix face-to-face with someone he thought he would never see again.

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In a post-credits scene, a flashback to one year prior shows Sonata being released from prison, having served her six-month sentence. A royal guard escorts Sonata out, gives her her glasses, and asks her what she is going to do now. She answers, "I'm going to help those that need it. Just like he did for me."